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EERI/FEMA GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP AWARDED

Jamie Padgett, a Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been selected as the 2006-2007 NEHRP Graduate Fellow in Earthquake Hazard Reduction. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute awards this fellowship each year in a cooperative program with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The award is given to foster the participation of capable individuals in furthering the goals and practice of earthquake hazard mitigation. The fellowship provides $12,000 for a nine-month stipend and $8,000 for tuition, fees, and research expenses.

Padgett was chosen from a group of six applicants. The applications were reviewed by Ellen Rathje, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin; Scott Olson, assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Bozidar Stojadinovic, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and Tricia Wachtendorf, assistant professor at the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center. The candidates were drawn from six universities in California, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina. They represent the fields of structural and geotechnical engineering, and hazards mitigation.

Padgett's research focuses on assessing the seismic vulnerability of retrofitted bridges and mitigating the seismic risk of transportation networks. The objective of her multi-disciplinary research is to establish a methodology to develop reliable analytical fragility curves, which can provide decision-makers with needed tools to maximize investment in mitigating the seismic risk of retrofitted bridges. Her work will result in the first set of fragility curves for retrofitted bridges, especially those found in central and eastern United States, and will provide accurate predictions of performance during an earthquake. This will enable regional seismic risk assessment and loss estimation for mitigation of damage to the transportation network.

According to Reginald DesRoches, associate professor and associate chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, Jamie's doctoral research could have "a major impact on the practice of bridge seismic design."

The objective of EERI is to reduce earthquake risk by advancing the science and practice of earthquake engineering, improving understanding of the impact of earthquakes on the physical, social, economic, political and cultural environment, and by advocating comprehensive and realistic measures for reducing the harmful effects of earthquakes.

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